Progressive Reforms
Who were the Progressives,
and how did they address
the problems that they saw?
Child Labor
Many children working in factories and
sweatshops to help their families
As a result, they did not attend school
In 1890: 4% of American teenagers went
to school!!!!!!!!
Progressive pushed for laws to restrict or
ban child labor
National Child Labor Committee
By 1912, 39 states passed child labor laws
Prohibited children under age 14 from
working
Some states limited the number of hours
that older children could work
Decline of child labor meant more children
could now go to school = demand for more
schools
Schools in America
In 1870: about 500 high schools
By 1910: 10,000!
By 1930: almost half of all high-schoolaged children were attending school!
Progressives also pushed the
“Americanization” of immigrant children
Workplace Conditions
Reform not as successful here!
Supreme Court tended to side with business;
workers not forced to work!
Conditions for women better!: Supreme Court
ruled that states could limit the number of hours
women worked: “the physical well-being of
woman is an object of public interest” (mothers)
By 1916: 2/3 of the states had workers
compensation laws: workers who were
hurt at work still received some pay, even
if their injuries prevented them from
working
Political Reform
In many states, big business
controlled government, leaving
average citizens with little influence.
To return power to the people,
Progressives advocated various
reforms!
Political Reforms to end corruption
Direct Primary: voters hold elections to
choose candidates for office – as opposed
to party leaders picking candidates!
Recall: voters could remove an elected
official before his/her term expired
Initiative: enables citizens to propose and
pass laws directly without involving the
state legislatures
Referendum: a law passed by a state
legislature is placed on a ballot and voted
on by the people of that state
African-Americans
African-Americans faced an even
tougher battle; they were subject to
strict segregation and disenfranchised
due to poll taxes, literacy tests, and
other methods to deny them their right
to vote
Tuskegee Institute: vocational college for
African-Americans founded by Booker T.
Washington
NAACP: fought through the courts to end
segregation and to ensure that AfricanAmerican men could exercise their right to
vote
Tackling Racism
 Booker T. Washington:
The best way for AfricanAmericans to get ahead
was to work hard and
improve their economic
condition. “cast down
your bucket where you
are”; be patient and take
advantage of current
opportunities rather than
agitating for more quicker
or more radical solutions.
 Accomodation - adapt to
the limits imposed by
white society!
Tackling Racism – a different approach
W.E.B. DuBois:
his strategy – push
hard for civil rights
through political
action.
He believed that
African-Americans
should protest
unfair treatment
and FIGHT for
equality
Trusts / Monopolies
A particular business: Northern Securities
Company was a company that controlled the
long-distance railroad lines from Chicago to
California; this company controlled many railroad
companies because the owners had bought up all
the stock in these companies. J.P. Morgan, one of
the owners of the Northern Securities Company
held a monopoly on rail service throughout the
Northwest.
T. Roosevelt “Trustbuster”
Roosevelt sued the Northern Securities
Company for anti-trust violations. No
president before this would have ever
done what Roosevelt did!
The Supreme Court ruled the Northern
Securities Company as a monopoly.
The role of government in business was
now changing! Future Presidents Taft and
Wilson followed Roosevelt’s policies!
Consumers and Workers
The book, “The Jungle” described the
deplorable conditions of the meat
packing industry and described the
horrible conditions of the food people
were buying!
Video clips
Meat Inspection Act: Required the Dept.
of Agriculture to inspect packaged meat
before it could be sold to consumers! (Oh,
what you could have been eating!
Pure Food and Drug Act: established
the Food and Drug Agency, to test and
approve drugs before they went on the
market; no more magical cures
Workers
1902 Arbitration: Roosevelt pressured
coal mine owners and the striking United
Mine Workers to submit to arbitration: a
legal process which a neutral outside party
helps resolve a dispute.
Taft: Department of Labor: investigate
welfare of children
Wilson: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act:
prohibited companies involved in interstate
commerce from hiring workers under 14
Environment
Industry and urban growth was
polluting the air and water as well as
devastating the landscape;
Progressives wanted to protect the
natural environment.
Preservation / Conservation
Roosevelt administration set aside nearly
150 million acres of national forests
making them National Parks.
Taft administration added 2.7 million acres
to the National Wildlife Refuge and
Wilson created the National Parks
System
Unfortunately not much done in the area of
pollution (not well known the effects of)
Reforming the National
Government
Progressives wanted financial reforms that
would improve government funding and the
banking system. They also worked for
constitutional reforms, including direct
election of senators, a ban on alcohol, and
women’s suffrage
Stabilization of the banking system
Since the early 1800’s, the nation had
been shaken by financial panics, periods
when people withdrew their money from
banks after losing confidence in the
economy. Panics caused banks and
businesses to collapse and sometimes
triggered economic depressions!
Federal Reserve Act
 Divided the country into 12 regions, each with a Federal
Reserve bank.
 Together, these banks and their operating rules make up the
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, or central bank of the U.S.
 Private banks remain independent but agree to operate under
the rules of the Federal Reserve System
 The “Fed” in return, offers a safety net by lending them money if
they are short of funds
 It also sets monetary policy to regulate the amount of money in
circulation, including setting interest rates and regulating how
much banks can lend.
 THE FED HAS MADE THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM MUCH
MORE STABLE!!!!!!!!!
Taxes and Tariffs
As the role of the federal government expanded,
its need for $$$ to fund its programs increased!
Big business wanted to raise tariffs? WHY?
Progressives believed these high tariffs were
unfair to consumers because they raised the
prices of imported goods and increased the cost
of living for average Americans.
Progressives believed income taxes were the
best way to solve the government funding
problem.
Sixteenth Amendment
Allow the federal government to impose
income taxes
Congress made this tax a “graduated” tax:
those that made more money paid more in
income taxes.
President Wilson also wanted tariffs
reduced – both of these went into a single
bill: The Underwood Tariff Act in 1913
Election of Senators
Progressives felt that citizens needed a
greater say in their government. The
Constitution required that national senators
be elected by state legislatures.
Problem: state lawmakers and the senators
they elected often had close ties to large
corporations!!
Seventeenth Amendment
Progressives wanted senators to respond
to the will of the people and not the
power of big business!
Progressive convinced Congress to
propose the 17th Amendment: direct
election of senators by popular vote
Gave average citizens more influence
in the Senate!
Legislating Morality
The idea of banning alcohol dated back to the
early 1800’s. Most advocates were women
and the Women’s Christian Temperance
Union: Their argument: drinking alcohol
made men unable to support their wives and
children.
The Progressive Era group: Anti-Saloon
League (mainly men) was a national
organization whose motto was: “The Saloon
Must Go”
Prohibition Movement gains momentum
Roosevelt or Taft did not support
Prohibition
U.S. entry into WWI in 1917 helped the
movement: argument – grain was better
used for food for the war effort than for
making alcohol!
The 18th Amendment ratified in 1919:
Prohibition of “the manufacture, sale,
or transportation of intoxicating
liquors” would not take effect
Social Inequality
Many Progressives did not tackle
issue of social inequality; mainly
women and African-Americans
Women’s Suffrage
Women had been demanding their right to vote
as early as 1848
1898: 4 states had granted women voting rights
1918: 15 states
Finally in 1919: Congress proposed the 19th
Amendment – ratified in 1920: “the right of
citizens of the U.S. to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the U.S. or any state on account
of sex.”